Rüdesheim

By train

Rüdesheim is served by the Rechte Rheinstrecke train line between Koblenz and Neuwied and Wiesbaden and Frankfurt. Trains are infrequent, with around one service per hour, but cheap towards Frankfurt/Wiesbaden/Mainz, as all towns lie in the RMV fare region.

• Rüdesheim railway station

By car

From Frankfurt the Autobahn A66 passes to the south of Wiesbaden via Eltville to Rüdesheim, where it links into federal highway B42. The B42 runs along the right bank of the Rhine from Koblenz to Wiesbaden via Rüdesheim. As you enter the town from the north, a railway level crossing ensures long traffic jams, particularly on weekends when the weather is fine.
From Bingen harbour you can take a car-ferry to Rüdesheim. Between Wiesbaden and Koblenz there are no bridges across the Rhine although there are a number of ferries.

By boat

KD and BR boats cruising the Rhine stop at Rüdesheim.
Ferry Rüdesheim – Bingen - You can also hop on a ferry across the river to Bingen and board there.

On foot

The Rheinsteig walking trail passes above Eibingen, Rüdesheim and through Assmannshausen.

Rüdesheim is small enough to cover on foot.
You can travel to Assmannshausen by train or bus, or just walk along the Rhine (6-7 km), you can also take a cable car up to Niederwald and a chair lift back down to Assmannshausen.

• The cable car runs from late March to early November and during the run-up to Christmas over the vineyards to the Niederwald monument. Single: €5, Return: €7, Children 5-15 years: €2.50-3.50, including chairlift to Assmannshausen: €7, including return by boat: €13, including a tour on a larger boat and entrance to Rheinstein castle: €16.
• Bus number 171 runs every hour from Wiesbaden station via Geisenheim to Rüdesheim and continues twice daily as far as Assmannshausen via Lorchhausen. Bus 187 runs from Rüdesheim via Aulhausen to Assmannshausen. This route makes a rough round trip through Eibingen and Windeck. At the weekend you must call for buses roughly 90 minutes in advance, and sometimes even during the week (Tel: +49 1803 101 113).

• Drosselgasseheart of Rüdesheim's old town

• AdlerturmThis late Gothic corner tower was built in the 15th century as part of the old city wall. It is 20.5 m high and has an inner diameter of 5 m. The walls are 1 m thick. One of the four floors contains a dungeon which is only accessible through a hole in the vault. The tower used to stand directly on the Rhine. In the last century it was home to an inn called "Zum Adler", from which the tower took its name. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived here when he visited Rüdesheim, admiring the magnificent view of the river. Today the Adlerturm is owned by a bank.

• Aristocratic residencesA series of beautiful aristocratic residences dating back to a variety of cultural eras can be found on Oberstraße: Frankensteiner Hof, Ritter‘scher Hof and Bassenheimer Hof. The street is also home to what is undoubtedly the most attractive of all of Rüdesheim’s aristocratic dwellings, the Brömserhof, which was built in 1542.

• Brömserburg CastleThe archbishops of Mainz owned the Brömserburg from the early 10th to the early 19th century. They transformed the original fortification into a residential castle in the 12th century. Previously, it was completely surrounded by water. Walls more than two meters thick, and vaulted ceilings with apexes one meter thick, resisted every attack. The Duke of Longville could destroy only the southeastern part of the castle. The clergy sold Brömserburg in 1803, and the castle passed through several hands until it was acquired by the town of Rüdesheim in 1941. Today the castle hosts the Rheingau Wine Museum, the oldest wine-related collection in the world. The castle garden contains old wine presses from different periods.

• Boosenburg Castle

• Burgruine Ehrenfels

• NiederwalddenkmalMonument located in the Niederwald Landscape park from 1883

• Niederwald-TempelThe temple lies between the top station of the gondola lift and the Niederwald Monument, and offers views across the countryside. The Count of Ostein built it as an attraction in 1788. During the 19th century Romantic era the temple drew many artists, including famous composer Beethoven and the writers Goethe and Brentano. Allied bombers destroyed the temple in November 1944, but it was rebuilt and reopened in June 2006.

• Zauberhöhle

• Saint James’s Parish Churchfrom the 15th century

• Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard

• Mouse Tower

Museums

• Siegfried's Mechanical Music Cabinet

  address: In the Brömserhof, Oberstraße 29
  the first German museum for data-storage musical instruments

• Mediaeval Torture Museum

  address: Oberstraße 49-51

• Rheingauer Weinmuseum Brömserburg

  address: Rheinstraße 2
  – 1,000-year winegrowing history in the old castle.

• Cable carto the Niederwald Monument

• Walk part of the Rheinsteig.

Events

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Rüdesheim is full of shops selling tourist trinkets, but there are also a few places to purchase some good local wines.

• Asbach Visitor center

  address: Taunusstraße 3
  Asbach Uralt brandy was originally distilled in the area.

• Drosselgasse is a very pretty (and very touristy) strip of restaurants and souvenir shops in the heart of Rüdesheim.

• Da Toni

  phone: +49 6722 4522
  address: Marktstraße 27
  Good Italian restaurant

Rüdesheim is the heart of the Rheingau wine region and is particularly famous for the Rheingauer Riesling white wine.
Also try a Rüdesheimer Kaffee, a coffee with Asbach Uralt brandy, served flambéed.

• Hajo's beer academe

  address: Rheinstraße 10
  For the beer drinker

• Hajo's Hotel Germania

  phone: +49 6722 2584
  address: Rheinstraße 10

• Hotel Felsenkeller

  phone: +49 6722 94250
  address: Oberstraße 39

• Hotel Höhn

  phone: +49 6722 90580
  address: Zum Niederwald-Denkmal 1

• Parkhotel Deutscher Hof

  phone: +49 67 22 30 16
  address: Rheinstraße 21

• Rüdesheimer Hof

  phone: +49 6722 91190
  address: Geisenheimer Str. 1

• Breuer's Rüdesheimer Schloss

  phone: +49 6722 90500
  address: Steingasse 10

• hoteltraube Rüdesheim

  phone: +49 6722 9140
  address: Rheinstraße 6

• Assmannshausen
• Bingen
• Bacharach
• Loreley, the famous rock of Loreley near St. Goarshausen, an hour by ferry down the Rhine.
• St. Goar – look to the Loreley
• Eltville am Rhein – Kurfürstliche Burg (Electoral castle)
• Eberbach Abbey (Kloster Eberbach) near Eltville
• Wiesbaden
• Burg Rheinstein near Trechtingshausen